Input and Edit Functions Utilizing Accelerometer Based Earpiece Movement System and Method

ABSTRACT

A method for performing voice dictation with an earpiece worn by a user includes receiving as input to the earpiece voice sound information from the user at one or more microphones of the earpiece, receiving as input to the earpiece user control information from one or more sensors within the earpiece independent from the one or more microphones of the earpiece, inserting a machine-generated transcription of the voice sound information from the user into a user input area associated with an application executing on a computing device and manipulating the application executing on the computing device based on the user control information.

PRIORITY STATEMENT

This application claims priority to U.S. Provisional Patent Application 62/415,278, filed on Oct. 31, 2016, and entitled Input and Edit Functions Utilizing Accelerometer Based Earpiece Movement System and Method, hereby incorporated by reference in its entirety.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

The present invention relates to wearable devices. More particularly, but not exclusively, the present invention relates to wearable devices such as ear pieces which include one or more accelerometers.

BACKGROUND

The use of wireless earpieces to perform dictation input presents great promise to those who must complete massive forms and paperwork. Such professions as medicine, law, accounting, insurance, and finance among others must create customized documents that oftentimes rely heavily on user input. Such user input currently comes at great cost; either the user must dictate into a microphone, or rely on microphones operatively connected to a computer or host device. Such microphones must extrapolate speech from ambient environmental noise. This is no easy task. Consequently, the work product is oftentimes plagued with artifact induced errors, increasing the workload of the user and contributing to worker fatigue. Over time, such difficulties also may lead to issues involving the physical health of the user, such as vocal fatigue, induced vocal strain, changes to the voice as witnessed through analysis of shimmer and jitter rates and ultimately, development of vocal fold pathology such as true vocal fold nodules or plica ventricularis to name but a few. As such, what is needed are new systems and methods that address the weaknesses in the prior art.

SUMMARY

Therefore, it is a primary object, feature, or advantage of the present invention to improve over the state of the art.

It is a further object, feature, or advantage of the present invention to provide a system that provides multimodality control over data input.

It is a still further object, feature, or advantage of the present invention to provide a system that allows the user to control input and editing functions via usage of the onboard accelerometers.

Another object, feature, or advantage is to allow the user to use the earpiece accelerometers within the device to facilitate the movement of the cursor through a document.

Yet another object, feature, or advantage is to allow the user to use the earpiece accelerometers to perform advanced edit functions within the device.

A further object, feature, or advantage is to program gesture commands through an accompanying app on a cell phone or computer.

A still further object, feature, or advantage is to override command functions as desired by a user and allow accessory functions to be enabled or disabled as desired by a user operator.

One or more of these and/or other objects, features, or advantages of the present invention will become apparent from the specification and claims that follow. No single embodiment need provide each and every object, feature, or advantage. Different embodiments may have different objects, features, or advantages. Therefore, the present invention is not to be limited to or by an objects, features, or advantages stated herein.

According to one aspect, a method for performing voice dictation with an earpiece worn by a user is provided. The method includes receiving as input to the earpiece voice sound information from the user at one or more microphones of the earpiece. The method further includes receiving as input to the earpiece user control information from one or more sensors within the earpiece independent from the one or more microphones of the earpiece. The method further includes inserting a machine-generated transcription of the voice sound information from the user into a user input area associated with an application executing on a computing device and manipulating the application executing on the computing device based on the user control information. The user control information may include a head gesture from the user, the head gesture detected using one or more inertial sensors of the earpiece. The user control information may include a gesture made at or proximate the earpiece to alter a field and detected using one or more sensors of the ear piece. The gesture may be one of any number of gestures such as a tap, a double tap, a triple tap, a hold, and a swipe. The input area may be within a document. The user control information may be used to move between fields within the user input area. The user control information may be used to indicate whether the machine generated transcription is accurate or not. The gesture may be used to change position within the document. The method may further include receiving a voice command at the ear piece from the user at the one or more microphones of the earpiece and further manipulating the application executing on the computing device using the voice command.

According to another aspect, an earpiece includes an earpiece housing, an inertial sensor disposed within the ear piece housing, a processor disposed within the ear piece housing and operatively connected to the ear piece housing, and at least one microphone operatively connected to the processor. The earpiece is configured to sense head movements made by a user of the earpiece using the inertial sensor. The may be further configured to receive voice dictation from the user of the earpiece using the at least one microphone and to interpret the head movements into instructions and convey the instructions to a computing device in operative communication with the earpiece. The earpiece may further include a gesture control interface configured to detect gestures from a user made at or proximate the earpiece. The gestures may include a single tap, a double tap, a triple tap, a hold, and a swipe. The earpiece may be configured to convey the gestures to the computing device in operative communication with the earpiece.

According to another aspect, a system includes an earpiece having an earpiece housing, an inertial sensor disposed within the ear piece housing, a processor disposed within the ear piece housing and operatively connected to the ear piece housing, and at least one microphone operatively connected to the processor. The earpiece is configured to sense head movements made by a user of the earpiece using the inertial sensor. The earpiece is configured to receive voice dictation from the user of the earpiece using the at least one microphone and the earpiece is configured to interpret the head movements into instructions and convey the instructions to a computing device in operative communication with the earpiece. The system further includes a software application executing on a computing device wherein the software application is configured to control receiving of voice sound information or text from voice sound information from the earpiece and the instructions from the head movements into a user input area. The earpiece may further include a gesture control interface operatively connected to the processor, wherein the gesture control interface detects one or more gestures made by the user. The software application may be a mobile application and the computing device may be a mobile device.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a diagram of one example of a system.

FIG. 2 illustrates a set of earpieces.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram of one example of an earpiece.

FIG. 4 is another example of a block diagram of one example of an earpiece.

FIG. 5 illustrates a document which receives user input from one or more earpieces.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

An earpiece device allows hands free communication through a wireless network. Said wireless network may use an optimized microphone linked to a voice engine for transcription of the voice data. The system may be configured to insert transcribed voice data into text boxes in the main program, or as directed by a user into a document. Gesture commands may be used to control the system using one or more accelerometers present in the earpiece. In doing so, greatest flexibility may be achieved to rapidly input data into the document. This allows the user maximal advantage in the data input, increasing the overall efficiency of data input. This may be a particularly important advantage to any number of professionals including doctors, lawyers, engineers, accounts, and others.

FIG. 1 illustrates one example of a system which includes a set of earpieces 10 which includes a left earpiece 12A and a right earpiece 12B. One or both wireless earpieces 12A, 12B may be in communication with a computing device such as a mobile device 2 with display 4. A software application executing on the computing device 2 may include an interface with a plurality of input areas 3 for collecting input from a user via voice dictation. In operation, a person using one or both of the earpieces 12A, 12B may dictate voice information which is received into the one of the input areas 3. The determination as to which input area 3 voice information is received into may be performed in various ways. For example, if a blinking cursor is shown in one of the input areas, but not the input area desired by the user, the user may shake their head no to indicate that this is not the correct input area. If it is the correct area, input area, then the user may nod their head with a yes motion. Thus, head movement of the user may be used to select the appropriate input area 3. One or more wireless earpieces 12A, 12B may be in operative communication with a computing device such as a server 6 which may be operatively connected to a database 8 either directly or through a mobile device 4. The server 6 may be a server platform which provides for voice to text conversion. For example, voice sound information may be received which was initially collected at the earpieces. This voice sound information may be converted into text information at the server 6 and then returned to the earpiece, to the computing device 2 or other device.

FIG. 2 illustrates a set 10 of earpieces 12A, 12B in greater detail. Each earpiece 12A, 12B has a housing 14A, 14B and may include an external facing microphone 70A, 70B.

FIG. 3 illustrates a block diagram of one example of an earpiece 12 having a housing 14.

One or more external microphones 70 are shown as well as one or more internal microphones or bone microphones 71. The internal microphones which may include one or more bone condition microphones and/or air conduction microphones may be used to detect voice sound information from a user wearing the earpiece. The external microphones 70 may be used for various purposes including to detect external or ambient sound which may be used during audio processing to assist in removing background noise or other sounds which are not voice sound information. The various microphones 70, 71 may be in operative communication with a processor 30 which may include a sound processor, microprocessor, audio processor or other processing components. A speaker 73 is operatively connected to the processor 30 as well. One or more wireless transceivers 34 may also be operatively connected to the processors 30. This may include a Bluetooth or BLE transceiver, a near field magnetic induction (NFMI), or other type of radio transceiver, induction transceiver, or other type of transceiver.

FIG. 4 illustrates a block diagram showing a plurality of sensors 32. These include air microphones 70, bone microphones 71, inertial sensors 74, or other sensors 32. The inertial sensors 74 may include a gyroscope, an accelerometer, and a digital compass. An intelligent control system 30 is shown which may include one or more processors. A gesture control interface 36 includes one or more emitters 82 and one or more detectors 84. One or more speakers 73 are also shown which are electrically connected to the intelligent control system 30. One or more light emitting diodes 20 may be electrically connected to the intelligent control system 30 and may be used for showing state of the earpieces. A transceiver 35 such as a near field magnetic induction transceiver 35 is shown as is a radio transceiver 34 which may be a Bluetooth or BLE or other type of transceiver.

The earpiece device provides for multiple modalities of receiving user input from an individual. These include, without limitation, voice control, accelerometer or inertial sensor based gestures, and other gestures. The earpiece may use the user input from these different modalities in order to determine the location or position in which to insert transcribed voice information.

Voice control. As the earpiece is used for dictation, voice commands may be used to perform the dictation. The voice commands used may be the same or of the type normally used in voice dictation/voice transcript products such as those available from Microsoft, IBM, Nuance, Dragon or from other vendors. In addition, the voice commands may be the same or of the type normally used in voice assistant technology such as that available from Google, Apple, Amazon, or other vendors.

Accelerometer sensed gestures. As the earpiece is used for dictation, head movement may be used to provide control for dictation. Head movement may include gestures to indicate yes or no in response to audio prompts from the system, head movement to activate a menu system, or other type of head movements. Head movement may include moving the head forward and back, side-to-side, or other head movements which may be mapped to user input.

Other gestures. Other gestures may be used to control voice dictation functions. This may include gestures such as a single tap, a double tap, a multiple tap, a swipe in a particular direction or other gesture to control voice dictation functions which may be mapped to user input. These are gestures which may be determined with a touch interface or gestural interface as previously described.

An earpiece device allows hands free communication through a wireless network. Said wireless network may use an optimized microphone linked to a voice engine for transcription of the voice data. The system may be configured to insert transcribed voice data into text boxes in the main program, or as directed by a user into a document. Gesture commands may be used to control the system using one or more accelerometers present in the earpiece. In doing so, great flexibility may be achieved to rapidly input data into the document. This allows the user maximal advantage in the data input, increasing the overall efficiency of data input. This is a particularly important advantage to any number of professionals including doctors, lawyers, engineers, accountants, and others.

As shown in FIG. 5 there is a document 100. The document 100 may have a plurality of different input areas 102, 104, 106, 108, 110. Each of these different input areas 102, 104, 106, 108, 110 may allow for text input. In operation, the present invention provide for performing voice dictation with one or more earpieces worn by a user. The method includes receiving as input to the earpiece voice sound information from the user at one or more microphones of the earpiece. The method further includes receiving as input to the earpiece user control information from one or more sensors within the earpiece independent from the one or more microphones of the earpiece. The user control information may be voice control information. For example, a user may identify the text input area where voice input is to be transcribed into in various ways. This may include through identifying the input area using the gestural interface or the inertial sensor. For example, when a blinking cursor is positioned in input area 102 and the user wishes to provide input into input area 104, the user may shake their head no which is detected by the inertial sensor and interpreted by the processor of the earpiece and then communicated to the computing device on which the document 100 is displayed. The computing device may then move to the next input area 104 and the user may begin dictating which is transcribed into voice input into the text input area 104. Similarly, the user may tap multiple times to select an input area or otherwise indicate which input area to use.

It should be appreciated that numerous types of documents are form documents with different input areas. These include various types of legal forms or documents, medical charts or forms, or other types of documents. The methodology described herein allows a user to navigate through the document from an earpiece. It is contemplated that in some implementations, the document 100 need not be seen by the user in order for the user to enter the information. Instead, data may communicated about the document to the earpieces. For, example, field names or prompts or other identifiers for each input area may be communicated through voice to a user and then selected by the user in various ways including through gestural controls, voice, or body movements detected using the inertial sensor(s). Thus, machine machine-generated transcription of the voice sound information from the user may be placed into a user input area associated with an application executing on a computing device. Moreover, manipulation of the application executing on the computing device may be performed based on the user control information.

In addition, to selecting a field for receiving input, a field may be selected for editing in a similar manner. For example, a single word, phrase, sentence, paragraph, or complete input field may be selected for editing in a similar fashion. For example, where an input area includes a paragraph containing multiple sentences, a first sentence may be highlighted. A user may shake their head “no” to indicate that is not the sentence to be edited and then the next sentence may be highlighted. The user may shake their head “no indicate” that is not the sentence to be edited and then the next sentence may be highlighted. The user make shake their head “yes” to indicate that this third sentence is the sentence to be edited and then the user may re-input the sentence using their voice or otherwise. Alternatively, the gestural control interface may be used, such as by tapping three times to indicate it is the third sentence to be edited.

Various, methods, apparatus, and systems have been shown and described related to input and edit functions. Although specific embodiments have been shown and described herein, the present invention contemplates numerous options, variations, and alternatives. 

What is claimed is:
 1. A method for performing voice dictation with an earpiece worn by a user, the method comprising: receiving as input to the earpiece voice sound information from the user at one or more microphones of the earpiece; receiving as input to the earpiece user control information from one or more sensors within the earpiece independent from the one or more microphones of the earpiece; inserting a machine-generated transcription of the voice sound information from the user into a user input area associated with an application executing on a computing device; manipulating the application executing on the computing device based on the user control information.
 2. The method of claim 1 wherein the user control information comprises a head gesture from the user, the head gesture detected using one or more inertial sensors of the earpiece.
 3. The method of claim 1 wherein the user control information comprises a gesture made at or proximate the earpiece to alter a field and detected using one or more sensors of the ear piece.
 4. The method of claim 3 wherein the gesture is from a set consisting of a tap, a double tap, a triple tap, a hold, and a swipe.
 5. The method of claim 1 wherein the user input area is within a document.
 6. The method of claim 1 wherein the user control information is used to move between fields within the user input area.
 7. The method of claim 1 wherein the user control information is used to indicate whether the machine generated transcription is accurate or not.
 8. The method of claim 1 wherein the gesture is used to change position within the document.
 9. The method of claim 1 further comprising: receiving a voice command at the ear piece from the user at the one or more microphones of the earpiece; and further manipulating the application executing on the computing device using the voice command.
 10. An earpiece comprising: an earpiece housing; an inertial sensor disposed within the ear piece housing; a processor disposed within the ear piece housing and operatively connected to the ear piece housing; at least one microphone operatively connected to the processor; wherein the earpiece is configured to sense head movements made by a user of the earpiece using the inertial sensor; wherein the earpiece is configured to receive voice dictation from the user of the earpiece using the at least one microphone; wherein the earpiece is configured to interpret the head movements into instructions and convey the instructions to a computing device in operative communication with the earpiece.
 11. The earpiece of claim 10 further comprising a gesture control interface configured to detect gestures from a user made at or proximate the earpiece.
 12. The earpiece of claim 11 wherein the gestures include at least one of a single tap, a double tap, a triple tap, a hold, and a swipe.
 13. The earpiece of claim 11 wherein the earpiece is configured to convey the gestures to the computing device in operative communication with the earpiece.
 14. The earpiece of claim 10 wherein the computing device includes a display.
 15. A system comprising: an earpiece comprising: (a) an earpiece housing; (b) an inertial sensor disposed within the ear piece housing; (c) a processor disposed within the ear piece housing and operatively connected to the ear piece housing; (d) at least one microphone operatively connected to the processor; (e) wherein the earpiece is configured to sense head movements made by a user of the earpiece using the inertial sensor; (f) wherein the earpiece is configured to receive voice dictation from the user of the earpiece using the at least one microphone; (g) wherein the earpiece is configured to interpret the head movements into instructions and convey the instructions to a computing device in operative communication with the earpiece; a software application executing on a computing device wherein the software application is configured to control receiving of voice sound information or text from voice sound information from the earpiece and the instructions from the head movements into a user input area.
 16. The system of claim 15 wherein the earpiece further comprises a gesture control interface operatively connected to the processor, wherein the gesture control interface detects one or more gestures made by the user.
 17. The system of claim 15 wherein the software application is a mobile application and the computing device is a mobile device. 